"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King Jr.
North Palatka's first publication since 1968, The Dancing Mastodon Magazine was written, produced, and released on Black Friday, 2023 by Mr. Cowan Amaye-Obu. As Director of Satuye Cultural Arts & Science Coalition Inc. and Editor in Chief for The Dancing Mastodon Magazine, the publication is for sale online and at participating stores. The Inaugural Edition features over 35 local businesses, and includes fine dining coupons from North Palatka Restaurants, Champions of Palatka Awardees, and articles on local history. Purchase your copy today!
The Scientific Method is the basis for discovery of all knowledge. It is a process of observation, experimentation, analysis, and conclusions. The best conclusions which can be replicated given roughly the same set of parameters will produce theories. The certain conclusions which produce the same outcomes each time the experiment is enacted is called laws.
Of all the laws, theories, sciences, disciplines, and knowledges the most holistically encompassing for producing changes in human society is psychology. Theories and laws in psychology are highly significant to understanding humans as individuals and communal societies. The development of all cultures begin with the psychological method and the selection of a set of values to create a root basis to which all existence is wired to produce an outcome in sync with the value set. The following theories: The Social Bell Curve Theory, Sexual Transference, and How the Spirit Travels discuss hypotheses, observation and conclusions, but require further study.
(This writing is for Knowledge & Science only. Racial, Ethnocentrism, Religious, & Political debate are not considered valuable enough perspectives to interpret these following:)
The 13th Month of Akhet is a celestial event and observation of the Ancient Khemetians. It marks a period of High Holy celebration beginning on September 1st-September 13th, a 13 day observance. It is the new year and beginning of the Flood season.
What is the observation of the month of Akhet?
The current 365 day western calendar was adopted from the Ancient Khemetians during the reign of the Roman Emperor, Julius Ceasar. The Romans needed a more accurate system to keep track of their traditional and festive holidays. Thus, the Roman invasion of Egypt during the reign of Cleopatra, was a major exchange of culture and wealth, including the mystery educational system of Khemet. The Roman or European calendar would update from their 10 month, lunar 300 day year to its current calendar. The Ancient Khemetian concept of the 12 Gates, which the Earth traveled in a procession each night, along a cosmic river, became the signs of the horoscope and months of the year. To correct their calendar, August & July were named after their wise Emperors and added. These months expose the utter error of the European time structure even today. September (7), October (8), November (9), December (10) are the remnant of the 7th, 8th, 9th, & 10th months. However, today they oddly represent the 9th, 10th, 11th, & 12th months of the year. The Romans learned a great deal from the Khemetians, but what was not learned was never discovered, forgotten, or simply, strategically omitted from the Romans. And that missing puzzle piece, over the last two thousand years and the change from Roman polytheism to Roman Catholicism has left a defining indentation in the modern European understanding of the world. It often requires major reformation or reconstruction of the entire accumulated body of knowledge the European culture has developed into a dynamic civilization, today. One block can topple an entire puzzle. The Ancient Romans, as polytheist were more suitable for understanding than the intolerant monotheists, Roman Catholics, who command all things linguistic and legal in the European Civilization, today.
The Ancient Khemetians developed their civilization based on a system of observation of Neter. The word, Neter, is most closely translated to the concept of and word, nature. The development and understanding of Neter, over hundreds of thousands of years by the dawn of the tribal unification of lower & upper Khemet in 3400 BCE, was illustrated in the Khemetian Pantheon. The forces of Neter, were transcribed and anthropomorphized into the world's first Deities. The Khemetian Deities are actual physical forces of Nature and can be observed, as well as physically felt by their often overwhelming affect on the Earth and all its inhabitants. The Ancient Greeks & Romans transcribed many of the Khemetian Deities into proto-European culture. However, by the time of the Greeks & Romans, the Ancient Khemetian civilization was already ancient, lending the understandings of their philosophy, mathematics, sciences, physics, and religion to error. Many of the concepts of Neter Deities were extended and given elaborate attributes less derived from nature and more defined by the human experience. Thus, by the dawn of monothesism, which is a late belief system, the original Khemetian concept of a Neter deities had gone from a force of nature to a human personification of the natural forces on Earth. This is the great flaw of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the attribution of all the various competing & balancing forces of Neter, were transmuted to a single human derived deity. Still, the physical Neter Deity, that the Hebrews, people of Christianity, & Islam overlooked & allegorized, has always been alive and well. In fact, the sheer mystery became more phenomenal and out of reach for monotheists, the more human attributes developed onto the non-human entity, as time continued to the present. Only traditional Khemetian (African) societies, traditional cultures, polytheists cultures worldwide, or those inducted into the Mystery School System were imparted with these ancient concepts of mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, mechanics, and the relation to existence. The Neter Deity monotheists took, was Ausar, the Deity of the Resurrection and the Depths.
Ausar, is a force of nature. Ausar is a star. It is often in modern history referred to as the Eastern Star. Proto-Europeans like the Greeks, renamed this star, Sirius, Lord of the Resurrection. Ausar or Sirius, is the solar system, which our solar system revolves around. It takes 1462 days to complete one revolution around this Star. Therefore, the emergence of this star, on the horizon, and the gravitational pull, causes major physical phenomena on Earth. The physical phenomena observed was the flood season. At the sight of this star, the Ancient Khemetians, knew the Nile River would flood, if it had not already done so. They also knew, by the animals who vacated the river. Thus, it is important to understand that even the animals are aware of this physical entity. So, like the Moon, causes the changes in the tides on Earth. Ausar, causes the water from the depths of the Earth to rise, the storms, tsunamis, and earthquakes are all physical phenomena, associated with the emergence of this star. This is also why it is called the Deity of the Depths. The result of this Deity after the flood is, the resurrection of nature. The sheer widespread destruction, devastation of natural regions on Earth, produced one effect, rebirth. The soils were replenished, the dead trees were removed, the gigantic continental plates were moved into place and life continued as a new season of growth begin. This is why Ausar is always represented by the color green, to symbolize death and rebirth, or resurrection. This occurred every 365 days or revolution of the Star to our celestial sphere (1462 divided by 4). The monotheists, missed the entire concept with their humanized allegory. However, they did not miss the mark completely and some still refer to this time as New Year, or time of Judgement.
The 13th month of Akhet marks the arrival of Ausar, on the Eastern Horizon. The entire Earth is sure to have already felt its presence. It is an actual Deity, that can be seen, observed over time, and felt. So, during this time of High Holy, prepare, fast, pray for safety during the storms, gather together with your loved ones, and watch not only nature balance itself against the wicked force of extreme heat or extreme cold, but also move into another position in relation to our revolution around not our Sun, but our original source, Ausar.
The Holy month of Akhet is also a reminder that there isn't one force on Earth. There are many powerful entities and they are not human. This isn't a discussion on aliens, flying saucers, or humans with meta-powers, either. This is a imparting of knowledge of nature and the many examples of life here on Earth and in the universe. They are various physical representations of nature beautiful, fearsome, loving, irrespective of person. For example, the Sun shines on everyone and no one can own the Sun. The same with the wind or the tragedy of a flood, mudslide, or earthquake. It isn't about you, it is the nature of life, the balance of forces. These are who the Ancient Khemetians observed and charted. They discovered their secrets and mathematical equations. These are our Deities and across the land of Khemet, all of the tribes have added deities of various renown. Our Deities, never did magic, nor was magic a concept among us. Carefully studied phenomena and science was our "magic," cause and effect. Our idea of Gods was misunderstood, and God, which is a German word, not old enough to describe our cultural beliefs, was made human with the magical or superpowers of nature. This is the unfortunate circumstance of translation. But allow me to re-translate the translation back into the original form. And allow me to introduce you to a real Deity that you can see with your eyes, the Lord of the Resurrection, whom many have based their lives. Here I point in the sky on New Years & High Holy to observe. Be blessed and I challenge you all, to observe Akhet.
This article is intended to persuade knowledgeable readers to consider establishing a Bureau of African American Affairs, as an effective and viable means to restitution, or Reparations to Black Americans, in the United States. This Bureau will resurrect the 1872 charter of the late great, Freedmen's Bureau, as a new US Government Agency, or given specific establishment under the Department of the Treasury, Interior, or a government Department of like responsibilities. The outstanding and long term effects of the peculiar institutions of slavery, in the United States requires a proper supervision to address the myriad of systematic repair to the African American, finally ensuring the stamp of United States citizenship protection in action, and not just words & gestures. According to the Bureau of Internal Statistics, Black Americans spend .95 cents of every $1.00, outside of their community. To write historically African Americans, a predetermined sum check for Reparations, would ultimately be given back to outside communities. Thus, an Institution, which can initiate the Legal, Economic, Banking, Insurance, Housing, Health, Labor, Education, Farming, Commercial, Entrepreneur, Medical, and other industries directly engaged for the commerce or restitution of African Americans, can effectively administer a holistic policy of longstanding restoration. In addition to a predetermined sum check, these actions would address the inter-generational socioeconomic post Bellem trauma, specifically inflicted & experienced by everyday historically, Black Americans.
The Okie Doke
Since 1989, a bill establishing a United States Federal Commission to study the legacy of slavery, its ongoing harm, and to develop proposals for redress and repair, including reparations, has been introduced every year, but died on the vine towards legislation in the US Congress. Outside of the United States, most former colonial nations in the Americas such as territories formerly held by The British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, & Netherlands Kingdoms, all have sought redress and repair, from the five centuries of colonial subjugation through enslavement & its surviving tentacles, "peculiar institutions (Stampp 1958)," present today. Many African Americans in the United States, fail to connect their experience to fellow Afro Americans, across the various nations of the Americas, suffering from similar systems of oppression and seeking similar systems of redress and repair. This unfortunate ignorance explains how successful and profitable the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was and continues to be presently. The various Spanish, Portuguese, French, English or Dutch colonies and their capitalist economic goods built an entire local, regional, national, and international European hegemonic Empire on foreign lands, renamed, the Americas. A similar larger trade of Africans occurred among the Islamic Empires during the same era, or, the Rape of Africa, and it too has effectively, hidden the success and profitability of its trade into the modern day, Middle East region. Descendants of Africans in Saudi Arabia or Qatar, rarely question how they arrived into their current situation due to aggressive Islamic assimilation. Thus, it is essential to comprehend what has captured the African in the American Diaspora and to whom is responsible for the act, especially because various parties, Kingdoms, financial houses, Churches, Companies or Corporations, and individuals have established themselves by these means and continue to reap the benefits of the system, through its derivatives. Explicitly expressed, the Africans in Diaspora are still in bondage, physically and therefore, legally. African Americans in the United States paid over $1.9 Trillion in taxes in 2022 and have been one of the largest contributors to American wealth since the nation's inception. To ask for redress and repair, when one has not secured one's liberty is to embark on an endless legal endeavor. The tragedy, is the inter generational trust and hope instilled by the propaganda of the dominant system, which keeps the descendants of Africans in the Diaspora, in a perpetual cycle of asking for reparations to an oppressive system or government in which, he or she, is still inflicted, by their very presence in the Americas, with no intention of letting go.
What Has Captured Africans?
According to the Quadrennial African Diaspora Census Report 2022-2023, the population of Africans in the American Diaspora is estimated to be over 89,898,803 people as of July 2022. The official estimate of the number of Africans force-ably transmuted across the Atlantic Ocean ranges from 14 million to 25 million by the year 1900. A population this size under normal conditions would easily blossom to the hundreds of millions to the billions within several centuries (1500s-1965), or a decent length of time. Thus, it is unimaginable the amount of death, the victims, survivors, and scholars of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade have speculated to have occurred due to harsh living or labor conditions, brutal codes of enslavement, medical experimentation, war, and all the spheres of the Western Capital System.Thus, it isimperative for Africans in the Diaspora and on the continent to understand what has captured them? To answer the question, it is important to understand who benefits and what changes in the world during the trade. What is traded? The Khemetians and the continent, were well established before the arrival of Europeans, why were these people selected as the builders of the American Empire? What institutions greatly benefited from the commandeering of Native lands and the enslavement of Natives & Africans?
We Were Captured by Christians
When Pope Nicolas V declared the Papal Bull Dum Diversas in 1452, Europe was already in 700 years of Holy War between Islamic Moors from Northwest Africa and the various Christian Kingdoms. Hordes of North and West African horsemen, poured into Europe through the Straits of Gibraltar to create a North African Emirate on European soil. In response, Christians launched the Crusades. At the time, the Christian faith became militarized by the Roman Catholic Pope, to raise armies and navies to physically uproot and expel Islamic Jihadists and their expanding empires from Europe through Al-Andalus (Moors) and Anatolia (Seljuk/Ottoman Turks). The Reconquista, was the Crusade to reclaim the Iberian peninsula for Christianity, and being a protracted military campaign for seven centuries ended with the fall of the Kingdom of Granada (Southern Espana) in 1492. Jews and Moors were forced to either convert to Catholicism, flee, or be put to death. In the aftermath of the success of the Reconquista, a new military offensive resumed, which would take the Holy Crusades sphere of war, out of the ravished southern Europe and thrust back to the shores of north Africa. Under Dum Diversas, militant Christian Kingdoms such as the Kingdom of Portugal and Castile, would commandeer new regions in North Africa, in the name of the Christian faith, and those who refused to surrender, would suffer the penalty of death or enslavement. In European History, the era is known as the Age of Exploration, which begins with Afonso V of Portugal and in Spain, the discoveries of the Americas by Don Christobal Colon in 1492. Dum Diversas and Romanus Pontifex justifies the military invasion and conquest of New Lands in Africa by the Portuguese. The foreign lands unknown to the Europeans were claimed under canon law by the various Christian Kingdoms and renamed the Americas (Amerigo Vespucci is the Italian navigator of Don Christobal Colon).
"to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and
pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and
the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all
movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to
reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate
to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties,
principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them
to his and their use and profit -Dum Diversas Pope Nicholas V 1452."
With the subjugation of native principalities, the lands, and the people (African or Native) captured by war were reduced to property of the Kingdom, hence enslavement or conversion became preferable to death, for the profit of the Kingdom. Thus, as goods, profits, land, and people continued to grow & enrich Christian Kingdoms as they invaded areas unknown to Christianity or Islam, competition for the same lands, forced the various European Kingdoms to enter into a Holy Alliance or pact. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI, establishes Inter Caetera, the modern European legal framework for the Law of Nations, forbidding Christian Kingdoms from conquering regions already claimed by other European Christian Kingdoms and setting the foundation for European militant Christian hegemonic empires on conquered lands. The Doctrines of Discovery (Dum Diversa, Romanus Pontifex, & Inter Caetera) initiate the expansion of militant Christian Kingdoms into Africa and the Americas for land, pillage, rape, & profit under the guise of Christianity, trade, & exploration.
Feudalism, Mercantilism & Capital
When Christian Armies captured large groups of people, those people entered into a world driven by European customs. The first custom is social and feudalism is the socioeconomics of European life, then and today. European Kingdoms were militarized with the central commander, or Commander in Chief of the armed forces declared King. Under the King, existed a social structure of his vassals, or loyal knights who ruled in the King's name, over their own appointed territory. The territory came with villages and lands where people called serfs, were tied to the land, by forms of taxation like rent or sharecropping. Terms like landlord, Mayor, Count, County are derived from this feudal system and this was the system used to accommodate the Africans & Native people, now thrust into the possession of the Christian European Kingdoms. However, unlike serfs, or peasants, Christian Kingdoms were granted permission by the law to reduce persons to "perpetual slavery," so cruel & unusual treatment, including death, was legal.
Now, within Feudalism, Europeans are producing and consuming goods and services. Those goods and services continued to be produced during the Age of Exploration, but the new type of goods being commandeered and discovered for the first time by Europeans, which were widely known by other cultures fueled the capital wealth of nations and the expansion of new military campaigns. For example, coffee, was introduced into Europe by the Ottoman Turks, who were trading coffee out of Ethiopia with local Saracens. When coffee became a popular product in the Italy, France, & the British Kingdoms, plantations & factories were established in newly conquered lands of the Americas to supply coffee to Europeans and colonist. The scale of the industry and the profits made by coffee merchants built a new Europe and established money capital as currency within the various Kingdoms. The same scenerio can be applied to sugar, rice, tobacco, tea, pepper, indigo-dye, medicinal plants, various fruits & vegetables, and the entire European capitalist system was built on the profits from these ventures which became huge enterprises.
Thus, in plain speech, local Natives in the conquered territories of the Americas could not fathom what had captured them or why these White Men continued to arrive on their shores. When a slave rebellion of Africans succeeded in defeating a Encomienda or plantation owner, they could not fathom why they were still in jeopardy of losing their freedom, due to pursuing armies. What captured the Natives and Africans was not just Christianity, but an entire system of goods & services, plantations & factories, armies & navies, horses & ships,distribution routes, currencies, Corporations and Sovereigns. Natives & Africans had been captured by behemoth operations often to complex to understand, especially if one originated from a small village. What Christianity does is supply the legal and moral framework for the perpetual enslavement of the principalities, regions, and people, from the tundra of Canada to the southern islands of Argentina. Those who have converted are able to participate in the spoils of war.
Who Are the Africans?
Europe is no stranger to Africans. Greece & Rome are empires whose histories are inextricably interwoven and rooted in Mediterranean culture dominated by the civilization of Khemet & its vassal, the Canaanites (Phoenicians), since modern Europe did not exist then, as it does today, as the latest group to ascend to the table of high human civilization. Lords of Renown are listed in the annuls of European History from the Conqueror of Brittanica, Roman Emperor Septimius Servern, the namesake of the month of September. Or the Umayyad conquest of the German Visiogothic Kingdoms of Hispania by Moor Commander Tariq Ibn Ziyad who began in 711 CE, seven hundred years of rule by Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. There is a long knowledge of Africans and African culture in Europe. But the continent of Africa was colonized as Africa in the 1880s, it was known by a variety of names including the most ancient and renown, Khemet, Punt, Libya, Axum, Abyssinia, and various other names according to Nation, tribe, or clan in control of the extensively massive amounts of territory. The entire Western comprehension of the continent is upside down, as geographically, to the scholarly inhabitants, North is South and South is North. In plain English, this means that South Africa is actually North Africa and the nations along the Mediterranean are considered the southern edges of the continent. Thus, the misunderstanding of the continent has been purported by outsiders, who know little of the aboriginal knowledge of the continent, yet convene like expert scholars on Africa. The continent is at the center of the world and to the people who evolved on the continent, are the most ancient and last of the Homo Sapien species to inhabit the Earth. Six or more Human species have migrated out of Africa (Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Ergaster, Homo Florensis, Homo Neanderthal, & Homo Sapien) to populate the world. The continent is so massive, historically other than the Romans (Africas), only the Ancient Khemetians held a name to describe it, commissioned and mapped the entire continent by two different Pharaohs, Pharaoh Sobekhotep V in 1720 BCE and Pharaoh Necho II in 600 BCE, as well as the infamous Carthagian Mariner, Hanno, who famously sailed the western coast returning to Carthage with the skin of three female Gorillas. The travels of Hanno a North Carthagean, signified the immense distance between the North and West, including the lack of cross knowledge of two significantly different cultures within the continent. In Anthropology, it is widely known that all human species begin in the continent of Khemet, then migrate out of the continent. Thus, it is important to draw the connection between The Out of Khemet Theory (Out of Africa Theory Oppenheimer 2000), all of the first fruits of civilization including agriculture, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, science (Chemistry), mathematics, writing and the people. Africa is the Roman designation of the Northern coast of the continent, after the defeat of the Carthage Empire in 146 CE. Romans stationed their legion and renamed the territory after one of the seven Roman gods of the wind, Africas. Still, the continent extended into regions much more ancient and unknown to the Romans. There have been hundreds to thousands of civilizations on the continent of Khemet including Khemet, Abyssinia, Punt, Axum, the Great Zimbabwe Civilization, Ghana, Mali, Songhai and many more. Ultimately, the people who were stripped from the Motherland, were denied their traditions, histories, language, and cults, and assimilated into the various Western European cults, whether Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, or English, all tied together legally by the Roman Catholic Christian Canon. The African today, whether on the continent or in the Diaspora, is in a serious state of warfare, which requires all seriousness and attention, should we survive into the 22nd Century as the largest population in the world, once again, and all that this status bestows.
The Proposal
The most effective restitution or attempt to enact agenuine gesture of reparations for Black Americans in the United States, is to create an institution or Federal Department, legally authorized to oversee the implementation of restitution policy concerning the over 45 million African Americans living in the United States. The institution could be called The Bureau of African American Affairs. This bureaucracy or agency, would establish the legal framework, legal defense, and legal practice of legal restoration of the African Americans in every sphere of American life. After establishing the legal mandate and framework, it is important to understand that several historical industries within the United States, are vetted in predatory practices towards African Americans including the United States government itself. These industries will naturally resist any effort at effectively protecting the citizenry rights of African Americans because their wealth was created and is founded on the violation of African American liberties. For example, the United States prison system, US medical system, US financial system, the federal housing system, the US political system, the US labor system, the education system, and the United States legal system itself. All these federal agencies would be subject to legal query, and contest based on the manner of how the African American has been historical violated and broken by Americanism. There is no wonder or delusion why the original Freedmen's Bureau was abandoned by the United States government because so many industries, families, and individuals depended on the affliction of African Americans. The very existence of the country had become predatory and parasitic towards the African American and to suddenly stop or develop a conscience, a moral compass, has been a redeeming characteristic that has escaped Criollo Americans, as Christians, and even other countries within the sphere of Dum Diversas & Western European expansion into the foreign lands, now referred to as the Americas. A Bureau of African American Affairs in every country in the Western Hemisphere would effectively address the reparations dilemma. Thus, after the legal reversal of Dum Diversa and the 3/5 rule, the Bureau could set itself to properly defend abuses of Black Americans, then begin to address the other issues such as the economic plight, the Black financial crisis, the Black Housing Crisis, Black real estate & agricultural farms, Black education, and its mission would be the protection of Black African Americans in the United States.
Few have proposed a successful holistic approach to the restitution for African Americans in the United States, such as Booker T Washington, Dr. Amos Wilson (Blueprint for Black Power Wilson 1995), and Dr. Claude Anderson (Powernomics Anderson 2004). The most sincere advocates for Africans in America created a Bureau for Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Lands after the United States Civil War in 1865. The bureau created under the Administration of President Abraham Lincoln with the advise of Frederick Douglas and declared by the Radical Reconstruction Congress, was also known as the Freedmen's Bureau. The aim was to assist and provide additional rights to ex-slaves including the distribution of land, the legal advocates in State & Federal Courts, and...
"any of the civil rights or immunities belonging to white persons,
including the right to.....inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold and
convey real and personal property, and to have full and equal benefit of
all laws and proceedings for the security of person and estate,
including the constitutional right of bearing arms."
The sheer magnitude of its mission, the financial & political power of its opponents, and the semi effectiveness of the Freedmen's Bureau lead to its failure. The failure exposed the manner in which the American Capitalist Patriarchy Militant Supremacy Machine encompasses, surrounds, then begins to attack African Americans leaving them as the victims and stepping stone for American prosperity. For example, one of the first roles of the agency was to represent ex-slaves in contracts with employers, also to become legal representatives in family courts to find their relatives, and the distribution of land. In those three industries, Labor, Legal, and Housing, you find three separate arenas where White Capitalists were actively predatory towards Africans in America. The same predatory scheme can be found today in every American city and African Americans have the same need today, as they did in 1865. Thus, when it became politically advantageous to defund the Freedmen's Bureau in the name of reconciliation after the Civil War, the United States under President Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat, effectively destroyed it. What the successor of Lincoln did not accomplish, the Ku Klux Klan would by violently beating, lynching, and burning Blacks & the White supporters. The Post Bellem America could not rise to the occasion to complete the work of the Civil War. Thus, race, remains a poisonous shadow in American History.
or
The Conclusion
Can the United States survive another Seminole (largest slave rebellion in US History) or Civil War? Should race still be an issue? And why won't the United States government abandon, dismiss, or abolish its National Security Policy towards African Americans? Negroes, Coloured People, Blacks, or, today's African Americans have made the United States the most powerful nation in the world. The reward of such a contribution to the once wealthiest nation on Earth is not jubilee, but more labor and injustice to feed its economic engine. The descendants of the Former Slaves deserve better and have tried everything decent to plead their case, and others, have flung themselves into a crash course with American society. The stonewall approach to Black American justice is dangerously unnecessary. A dog backed into a corner is most vicious, but why not treat the dog well anyway? The United States society has crushed or destroyed the very people, who built the nation's wealth and the people are damaged by trauma. The Native American once had a similar plea of mercy to the United States government. African Americans are making the same plea because the illegitimate & ubiquitous warfare against Black Men, Women, and their children has taken its toll. The African American family, suffering from inter-generational systematic injustice and post-traumatic slave syndrome is finally going insane, losing their traditions and values which defined our contribution to everything American from music, diet, to science and agriculture. The fall of many civilizations, such as Rome, Greece, Persia, and others, precipitates from not knowing when to free their captives & enslaved. The United States does not have to make this same mistake being a young nation and less than half the age of Persia at its peak. Though the United States is a great contribution to civilization, it is no Persia, Zhou, Khemet, or Olmec Empire leaving a better world to its posterity. Restitution at least gives the nation a chance to show growth and character, lest it lose it mandate from Heaven, as the Chinese will say. In sheer magnitude, restitution will be a short term fallout to many industries, but like fixing a leaky engine or setting a train back on track, the long term economic investment could possibly sustain multiple golden eras to come. African Americans are a productive people and still contribute trillions to Quadrillions of dollars to the United States coffers. A Bureau of African American Affairs could save the United States of America.
The
narrative of the African American woman in the United States is of
vital and national security importance to the Black family, and
Pan-African Society. Our women, are our most important resource and
treasure. Likewise, for the Black women, the Black Man is their most
important resource and treasure for the maintenance of African or
Khemetian society. The relationship is reciprocal and the seed and egg
defines our oneness as an organism and species. For her to lose her
mind, personal & historical identity, self value, and social role
within the African American family, during our Diasporaic sojourn in the
Americas, is to observe the slow genocide of a family and an entire
group of people.
Thus,
the narrative of Black Women's History in the United States must take
meticulous care to identify specific mechanisms and historical
ideologies, which form the foundation of American society (English,
Spanish, French, Dutch, or Portuguese) and dictate life in various
manners.
The Black American Women's History
First
and foremost, the African American woman cannot forget the manner in
which she came from the continent of African (Khemet) to the Americas
under the White Capitalist Patriarchical Military Supremacy colonization
of Western Europeans (Thinking Critically Bell Hooks). The
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade is as much of cause and effect as The
American Revolution or US Constitution is to the White American, it
determines the legal socioeconomic realities of life in these lands.
Furthermore, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade did much to the African
woman, that she should never forget, lest she fall victim to the same
devices which captured and enslaved her in these lands.
Unforgettable Tenets of Black American Women's History
1.
The
separation from her original family and protection is the first of many
traumatic actions which define this identity. The break up of her
family is the catalyst for the rest of her life and her children. Thus,
this is a theme that is constantly repeated in the course of all, each
and every Black American Woman's life, especially if they are not
conscience of it. Not enough can be said about this first historical
aspect. Next, The monetary valuation of her body and subsequent,
reevaluation for the uses of her body, especially as sexual vice without
consequence or permission, secondly as labor, and third, as the
mechanism for birthing new humans. The history of the Black American
woman begins with dehumanization, the loss of identity and history, and
the re-evaluation of her body, not for her essential social role as
daughter, Sister, Wife, and Mother, but for her labor contribution to
the capitalist system of the Americas, North, Central and South. This is
how a proud African tribal woman becomes a Black American in Spanish,
English, French, Dutch, or Portuguese. It is the same system in the
diaspora of the Americas. Please understand, this recent western, post
1500s, Crusades inspired history, is not the same, or minutely
equivalent to the holistic 200,000 year history of the African or
Khemetian woman, but one very recent subcategory.
Breaking Family on Coast of Africa
2.
Next,
in the history of the Black American Woman is language and renaming.
The loss of family and identity (clan & tribe) is replaced by a new
social orientation of people, new language, new name, and forced
mannerisms, in which to express herself. It can be argued that the Black
American Woman is an created woman, much like the Black American Man,
is an created man. For the record, Blackness is a concept and idea, not a
factual place and there is no land known called Black land. Still,
these specific aspects of the machinery of the system primarily shape
the Black Woman, inside and out, spiritually and physically. Any
narrative of Black American women must begin with this brokeness and
disconnect with her original safety, original identity, original
environment, and original reality. And most importantly, the narrative
must identify the cause of the brokeness and the role the dominant
society plays in causing this trauma and how the society constantly
changes how it redefines Black Women over time. Again, black women are
created by the dominant society and their reality is determined by that
society's capital valuation of their body and how it will be used.
3.
Given
the above framework filling the foundation of the Black American
Woman's History, the Black American Woman in the Diaspora of her people
and land (in other words, in a massive forced migration of her people by
war), begins her story.
Niggerification: How A Black Woman (Or Man) is Created
a. Separation from Original Clan, Tribe, & Family.
b. Physical Separation from Original Homeland & Native Biological Environment
c.
Physical Imprisonment, forced coerce behavior with violent torture
including maiming and rape as tools of war. Physical Enslavement and
separation from her native biological male, which is one and the same
original organism species. The Black Woman is then coerced into breeding
& sexual violence by her foreign captives.
d. Loss of
Culture, language, traditions, style of dress, diet, belief system,
personal value, unique customs, social roles, family identity, family
name and re-education into another culture with another language,
tradition, style of dress, diet, belief system, personal values, unique
customs, social roles, new family/social orientation, and new family
names. The new society and environment applies a capital value and
assigns an occupation for labor.
e. A Black Woman or Man is created.
The Ugly Truth & The Horrible Past
4.
Thus, the story and history of the Black American Woman must begin with her slave experience
and her narrative. What happened to her parents, her Mother and Father
and how did she come to be born? What happened to her family, Brothers
and Sisters, and what was the nature of their existence and cooperation?
How did the American system of enslavement affect her family? How has
America changed towards her family over the years? How are mature Black
mates brought together to produce another generation and what does life
look like for those children? In outlining these things, the Black Woman
will begin to understand that she is not an individual, but a sum of
many parts. It is impossible to separate the plight of the Black Woman,
since she is apart of the Black Family. The eras of Black Women's
history are adjacent to Black History in America. Understanding this
unity is vital to the safeguarding of the Black American family and
Black Women's History should always be used to scaffold to the larger
picture.
a. Colonial Era (1499-1830)
Examples:
Bars Fight by Lucy Terry (1724)
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley (1798)
A Blue Book from the Blue Black Magical Women by Sonia Sanchez
The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
From A Logical Point of View by Nikki Giovanni
I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Beloved by Toni Morrison
e. Civil Rights Integration & Contemporary History (1965-Present)
Women by Alice Walker
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
Teaching Critical Thinking by Bell Hooks
Aint I a Women by Bell Hooks
How the Black Woman is Portrayed Today
5.
"The
Modern American feminist movement has convinced the Black woman that
she doesn't need a man (Interview Dr. Umar Johnson 2022)."
Since
the American Civil War, the perpetual enslavement of Black Americans
has been outlawed except in certain Criminal cases, which indicates that
the Slave system in America is still in existence (13th Amendment
1865). After the overt enslavement period in the United States, it is
vital to portray Black American Women in unity with the Black Male,
which is an symbol broken by the Slave institution. The education of the
Black woman in the Diaspora and in the United States must withstand the
dominant American discourse, which seeks to represent Black American
Women as the same caricatures that were forced upon her by dominant
society during the Antebellum (Slave) Era. These portrayals include
Mamie, Tragic Mulatto, Jezabel, and the miseducated, misguided
"Independent Woman," in post modern times.
Mammie I & II Archetype Courtesy of Sean Smith for I Color
Independent Black Female Courtesy of Atlanta Black Star
The Fight For Proper Black Women's Portrayal
We
must inform our daughters, sisters, wives and Mothers of the coerced
behavior forced upon them during enslavement and the sheer strength it
took for Black Enslaved Ancestors, Black Men & Women, to fight for
our current generation of Black Women to be able to be, daughters,
sisters, wives, and Mothers, as opposed to property for labor and sex.
The American society intentionally seeks to separate the Black male or
female, physically & psychologically, for the purpose of control and
division from the group, which would
lead to the destruction of the entire unit, and continual enslavement
and poverty. This is the moral summit of
Sojourner Truth's A'n't I A Woman? Truth, encouraged by the early White
Feminist Movement to split from her inextricable support of equality
& suffrage of the Black Man for the universal suffrage of White
Women, voiced her understanding the the plight of the Black Woman cannot
be separated from the Black Man. Truth too, would like someone to place
a rain coat over a puddle of water, but since she is a Black, no one
would waste a coat, but "An't I a Woman?" The devices to divide Black
Women and Men are not new. However, the Black women must be reminded
that it took the sacrifice of everyone in the Black American culture, to
understand and fight those devices, so our women and families today
could soar out of the government planned ghettos and contributed to the
American Society in monumental ways. We must identify those ways, while
still drawing the connection to the Black American historical origin and
plight in the United States. Today, the Black Male is being destroyed
by mass incarceration, in many cities the percentage of single Black
women are as high as 70%, and the percentage of children coming out of
two parent households has dropped from 7 out of 10 in the 1960s to 2 out
of 10. The hegemony of the United States has directed the same slave
"Mammie- Tragic Mulatto, Jezabel, Single independent Women," propaganda,
legal (Auction Block-Child Support), and socioeconomic (Section 8)
attempts to drive a permanent wedge between the Black Male and female to
effectively break the Black family, through divide and conquer, once
and for all. The result will create a permanent caste of Blacks in the
Americas suffering from the ills of broken family, and the poverty it
breeds. Thus, our Black women must be well versed not to be fooled by
the popular American social attempt to separate her from the Black Male.
Black Women must be specific and particular about the Women publicly
endorsed as role models and icons. The Dominant American Society will
endorse Black Women, who fit the traditional roles of Mammie, Tragic
Mulatto, Jezabel, and Independent Women. Thus, the leaders of genuine
Black Feminist organizations must counter these popular forces with drug
free, authentic, tenacity, and historically knowledgeable Black female
Icons. The same must be done for our Black American Men, to provide role
models of substance and character. Essentially, in America,two groups
will be pushed, a group embedded by the White American Establishment for
social control, and another endorsed by the community for the genuine
representation of values, direction, and cultural mores. History has
given us examples of the type of Black American Women, we should support
and endorse. It is time to raise up another generation of daughters,
sisters, wives, and Mothers of substance and character.
Black Women in Unity or Black Women in Destruction
It is
unfortunate in the sojourner of the American Diaspora and the long
fight of Africans in Americas from the Middle Passage, Revolutions to
the Plantation and Jim Crow, that we find among ourselves traitors and
those who would betray our sacred heritage for temporary convenience.
The Black Women, who are in solidarity with the Black Man, the struggle
for the Black family, and the plight for the future of our children
cannot be praised enough. Black Women's History Month, must center
around these characters of substance within our communities; daughters,
sisters, aunts, wives, and Mothers. Their stories are ubiquitous and
their triumphs are inspiring.
In opposition to Black Unity are
the very loud, historical trauma driven, Black women in Destruction of
Black people and the costs are mighty. Of late, these are the Black
Women, American Media & Popular Agencies promote to influence Black
behavior and thought. Again, the characteristics are the same as during
the slave era caricatures, "Mammie, Tragic Mulatto, Jezabel, and the
Independent Woman." Each character is toxic towards Black people,
consuming them for their worth, then jettisoning them when they are
finish. This is all done in over appreciation and service of the White
Capitalist Patriarchy Militant Supremacy system. Furthermore, there is a
serious development in the destruction of the Black family and Black
Male, which is caused primarily by the toxic Black Woman.
The Auction Block
of the Courthouse, which sold millions of Black Men, women and children
by law during slavery, has rebranded itself as Family court, where
millions of Black families are broken apart again, just like the slave
days. Not only is family court turning millions of Black Men into
Debtors or Peon Slaves, but as a consequence of failure to pay,
criminals and in time, slaves again according to the 13th Amendment.
Thus, Black American Women, who were brought to America without the
rights of a citizen, are seeking justice from the very system which
legally enslaved her and her Ancestors, and in seeking justice from
another individual, a previous lover, who also was brought to America
without the rights of a citizen, in a court that historically sold
millions of Black Men and Women. The logic, I cannot make up but the end
result is not only the destruction of that specific Black Man, but if
repeated systematically, the re-enslavement of the Black Man by
testimony of the Black Woman. Such a betrayal on a mass scale cannot be
brushed under the rug of a lover's quarrel, if 7 out of 10 Black men are
currently within the system, than, this is one of the most important
issues in Black America today. A reason for "Fatherless" homes and mass
incarceration among Black families. The taxes received by the Courts
from Child Support are used to perpetuate the system, and is actively
after the school-prison pipeline, the second leading avenue for Black
Men to enter the criminal system. Black Women must acknowledge this and
take responsibility. Black America cannot be silent on the Child
Support System any further for not only is it criminalizing Black Men,
but taxing the Black Family during calamity.
Jezabel
The
Jezabel caricature for the Black American women is the most destructive
on the community and the person. The market for hyper-sexuality of
Black Women, constantly available, was created by European men in the
slave system, and thus, is hyperbole in reality, often coupled by
economic need. Keep Black families poor and White America will always
have a steady supply of Jezabels for consumption. Before the
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, it did not exist for African women and so,
Jezabel is strictly created as an Black American Woman caricature
because it is ultimately in service for miscegeny and white men. This is
a creation of American popular culture from everything from the
language, to the style of dress, occupations (Stripper, prostitute,
Video Vixen etc), and types of dances a Jezabel does (social or
twerking). Of late, this caricature has arisen to influence Black
American Woman in the face of literally a decline to Black Men due to
mass incarceration, and death. Due to the influence of the modern
Jezabel on Men, the impression and influence to other women and for
little girls to pursue this type of lifestyle or employment as a viable
means to earning a living increased, and the poverty of mind that
descends into all type of decadence from drug & alcohol abuse,
sexual promiscuity, sexual deviance, and poor moral compass is a grave
trauma that can be inter-generational. The spirit of Jezabel is not to
be miscalculated because the spirit is all consuming and is hedonistic,
narcissistic, and nihilistic. The psychological zeitgeist is to consume
men, constantly be available for sexual advances, cheeky behavior, and
uses feminism to justify what cannot be justified by honesty or true
morality. If a man marries a Jezabel, his family will be destroyed
within a matter of time, with the reality of being taken to the modern
auction block, likely. We caution our women to find value, historical
identity, and fruitful relationships with men which helps develop the
experience of different types of love to experience with men, such as
Fathers, Uncles, Brothers, Nephews, and sons. All these relationships
are not based on sex and so a women develops character which is useful
in a community of people, that is not toxic driven or based on
consumption. A woman needs to develop this type of fruitful relationship
with females as well to be balance.
Final Words
The
narrative of Black Women's History is of vital importance to the Black
Family and ultimately can influence the Black American experience for
the positive or the negative. The history of Black American Women is
ugly and horrific, but it is a lesson that is not to be forgotten, lest
we repeat them again. It is also a history that is inextricably bound to
the Black Man and family, from which Black Women cannot be separate.
Any attempt to portray the Black Women as separate is a device by
dominant society to divide and conquer the black community. Still, the
fight is to portray Black women as daughters, sisters, aunts, wives, and
Mothers to inspire triumph and human dignity among our women. Black
women will either live in unity with the Black Man & Family or she
will destroy it within this American society. History will record the
response
February is African American History Month in the United States, and this year, in 2024, The American Mastodon Publication would like to help Black America set the narrative. Black History, is not solely for the profit and capitalism by Large American Corporations, but for the education and remembrance of the long history of Africans in America. In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, the "Father of Black History," and author of The Miseducation of the Negro, initiated the celebration of Negro History Week to correspond with the birthdays of our great Forerunners, Frederick Douglas, and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, Negro History Week, expanded to the entire month of February. This year, in 2024, we would like to reignite the spirit of commemoration of the African American experience and our Elders. Thus, we would like to challenge all African Americans to plan Family Reunions, Family Brunches, and to redraw Family Trees. We would also like to encourage African American Tours of Black Museums and African American Historical sites across the United States. These are Things to Do: Black History Month 2024
1. Plan Family Reunions or Family Brunches (Form Committees in the Family to organize the event & use family, local, & Black businesses to furnish the lodging, event space, decorations, food, and book signing.)
4. Plant Flowers & Tokens at the Cemetery to celebrate your Family Ancestors, who've "crossed over the river." Send your love, pray for their support, and make sure your children know where their loved ones are buried.
7. Support Black American Businesses: Make a real effort to spend money within our community, beginning with businesses owned by your own family & friends.
9. Enjoy African American Films. List will be updated.
10. Join or volunteer for a local African American organization.
The American Mastodon Publication is proud to celebrate Black History Month 2024 and to challenge African Americans to set their own narrative, organize family functions, and to educate themselves on the long experience of Africans in the United States.
Written by Cowan Amaye-Obu
Director Satuye Cultural Arts & Science Coalition/Editor of The Dancing Mastodon Magazine
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